john's to recognize the tenants of abraham lincoln, the organist at st. john's found this in the archives and discussed it with church leaders at the time. they thought would be a good idea to have every president still living to sign it and every president that would follow them to sign it as well. so what we have inside this historic book are the signatures of herbert hoover, franklin roosevelt's, which was signed by his wife, harry truman, dwight eisenhower, john kennedy, richard nixon, gerald ford, to be carter, ronald reagan, george bush and so on. more recently, george w. bush and barack obama. the tradition has been maintained. at some point, when a new president is elected, st. john's makes an effort to contact that and have them sign this very historic book, which is a very dear item to the church. it does not sit in the president's piu anymore but it is one of those great pieces of history long associated with this church from 1856 to the present. one of the little-known facts about presidential inaugurations is that it has been the custom in mo